Everyone seems to have an explanation for why Roy Halladay is not what he used to be.

One theory I heard after the debacle in Cleveland on Tuesday night was beyond ridiculous, though.

The theory stated that Halladay was much better pitching to Humberto Quintero than he is with journeyman Erik Kratz or his longtime partner in commercials and life, Carlos Ruiz.

OK, facts: he was 2-0 with a 1.71 ERA, 16 strikeouts and five walks in his three good starts with Quintero behind the dish. He did throw up a clunker against the Mets, though, also with Quintero catching, but it was their first full game together in fairness.

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Without Quintero, Halladay is 0-2 with a 16.71 ERA.

Quintero was designated for assignment when Ruiz was brought back, but he is expected to be in Triple-A with the IronPigs.

(Note: When the heck is he going to get to play there? Tommy Joseph has got to be the main man there, as he is the Phillies’ starting catcher in 2014.)

At any rate, there a few angles to this Quintero quagmire.

First, as far as his indispensability to Halladay and the team in general, I think about the line from “JFK” when Jim Garrison tried to admit that Clay Shaw had given an alias to a police officer. The judge ruled it inadmissible, saying Shaw didn’t have his lawyer present.

“Dammit, that’s our case!” Garrison protested.

“If that’s your case, you don’t have a case,” the judge replied.

Same thing here. If Quintero was your team’s hope, you weren’t going anywhere anyway, so let’s not fret too much about that.

I will concede that an argument can be made that Kratz has not brought much to the table so far, giving Quintero just as much an argument to stay on the team as he had. But if that’s Halladay’s only problem, he’s in great shape.

The truth is, the first thing Halladay has to do is accept that he is no longer the Don Drysdale of this era. He’s more like Jamie Moyer than anyone, if we’re looking for a direct comparison.

What I mean by that is he has to pitch on pure guile and wily trickery now, not the Cy Young stuff he had just two short years ago. If you’re thinking the Moyer comparison is unfair, you’re probably right: Moyer won 165 games after Halladay’s current age of 36, something I don’t see Doc duplicating.

As for Chooch catching him for the first time Tuesday night, Doc did throw a lot of cutters, as if the battery pair were transported somehow back to that magical night in October of 2010 when every pitch was the right one. But outside of that 60 ½-foot box, the rest of us could see that the flux capacitor was empty.

Doc has to first accept that he is not the guy who threw two no-hitters in his first season with the Phillies. I don’t care if Todd Pratt’s uncle is behind the plate, he’s got to understand his limitations and work within them.

Halladay has had no average games so far. He’s either been terrific or horrific, and that’s probably going to be the case going forward. If it’s increasingly more of the latter, the Phillies have a hard choice to make as to when they pull the plug on a legend.

If Quintero really was Doc’s magic talisman, his career — or at least this season — could be saved, but it just isn’t that simple.

— Matthew Osborne is the editor of The Trentonian. He can be reached at 609-989-7800, ext. 201, or mosborne@trentonian.com. Follow him on Twitter @trentonianozzy.